I am so grateful for this congregation, for the chance to serve you, and the wider community of Nashville. I will admit that I harbor doubts when I look toward the future. Trying to do ministry from afar is, at best, awkward. I miss seeing your faces in person, and I know you miss this too, But I am so impressed by how you show up for each other week after week, and in countless ways throughout the week. You are all ministers to one another.

I’m truly impressed by the interfaith community in Nashville, and Zoom meetings have given me a chance to be more involved. Among the groups I meet with regularly are NOAH religious leaders, West End clergy, “Rabbi and Reverend,” an interfaith discussion group, the Atlantic Institute, a group that supports Turkish Muslims in exile, and NOAHs criminal justice task force. Sometimes I worry that I won’t be able to sustain these commitments when/if COVID restrictions end, but for me, it’s best to stay centered in each day and do what I am able.

I was invited to give an invocation at NOAH’s large public meeting on Sunday! You can see my prayer in the first few minutes of this video, CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO but I hope you will watch along for a while to get the picture of NOAH’s work and learn how Gamaliel and similar organizations make change. It’s exciting.

See you in a few weeks!

Cynthia

In talking about Listening to our Body, it’s enough for a start to realize we even have one. As I quoted during the meditation, it was James Joyce who wrote, Mr. Duffy lived a little distance from his body.

That’s the common situation for most Euro-centric cultures, religions, and nations. I love this poem, and the reading as well as the interpretation:

CLICK HERE: The New Religion

 It came out on Monday, or I may have read it to you on Sunday!

Once we decide to begin a new relationship with our own bodies, to accept and love them just as they are, we begin a spiritual quest. We begin the arduous journey of self-concern. It won’t make you popular, because some people will call you selfish and indifferent, and imply that you’re not compassionate.

For me, a good way to do this is movement, dance, easy yoga, and walking. I also love poetry, and reading or listening to a good poem a day is a treat for me, something I have to do like a discipline, because it’s for me, and the things just for me are the first to go when I feel stressed.

I regret that I ever felt bad about myself or my own physical being. But I understand it, which is something like forgiveness. And I am certain that I can’t truly help a single soul unless I am working to care for me.

I put a question on facebook:

Do you love yourself? If no, why not? If yes, How much?

Only about 5 people replied, all affirmative. I must admit that I was delighted to see that all of them were members of congregations I’d served. (One was a colleague from Transylvania.) I hope it made at least five other people think. Surely, if you believe God made you, you must love yourself! If you don’t have those beliefs, you can still deeply understand that you, like everyone else, are part of the great mix of beings that walk this earth and therefore of course you are to be loved. Even if you have done wrong, you can do something about that. Remember guilt is legitimate if it tells us we did wrong, but shame tells us we are something wrong. It is never helpful and almost always an impediment to wholeness.

We can talk about politics, crises, the environment, racism, and much more, and we should, but we ought not forget that our society and much of the world is in a great spiritual crisis right now, and I’m not talking about religion. Today the ones who boast of being the most religious are often the most dangerous, the most heinous. I am talking about our relationship with truth and with humanity.

This extended break from the typical routine is a wonderful time to begin or to revive a spiritual practice. I look forward to the journey along with you.

Cynthia

Chincoteague pony grazing last week.

I loved seeing your pets and hearing the names of the pets you’ve lost.

It got me thinking how much we love the mystery and majesty of wild animals, like the ponies at Chincoteague Island, near my ancestors' homeplace, about whose origin is still unknown, but which have drawn and fascinated people for centuries.

It reminded me that we can hold two seemingly contradictory ideas at the same time, like wilderness and responsibility, and that indeed that is what UU ism is largely about.

I think this time of isolation and separation has been difficult for so many of us and yet at the same time it has allowed us to see what is really important, what really matters. I believe that we have taken a deeper look at our relationships not only to people but to animals, nature, and the world around us. One hopes that in addition to seeing clearly the beauty, the magnificence, and the importance of this world that many will also see the reality of the danger, the harm, and the threat to life and become committed to working to preserve it.

Or, at least, stop actions that destroy it.

We’ve seen how easily years of work and lifetimes of struggle for civil rights, environmental and social justice, and decades of decency and democracy can be destroyed in unilateral and dictatorial acts. Many of us are fearful and alarmed.

It’s important to do what we can: vote (Did you reply to the NOAH survey yet!? Let us stand up and announce a 100% voting rate!); urge others to vote; volunteer in various capacities; donate to important races; and perhaps most importantly, help others who are falling between the cracks created by this administration: the unemployed, the underinsured, the underserved, the undocumented workers, the disenfranchised; you know the list. It goes on.

But even as we must never close our ears or harden our hearts to the bitter realities of now, so we must also keep room for the reasons preserving this world matters: there is love, there is courage, there is beauty. 

Joining your UU community on Sundays matters. It really matters now. It’s not just for you. It’s for everyone who needs you to be there so they can feel held and heard.

Here’s one more animal poem, and some pictures of our family pets. Please join me and the Worship team (have you thanked them lately?) on Sunday when I will begin a three-part series on healing: personal, communal, and global. This week is still taking shape but it will focus on healing from trauma and listening to ourselves and others.

Love, 

Cynthia

Eric with our new granddog Gia

Son Casey with Gia

Willow with our Whiskey

Rev. Cain will be on leave the week of Oct. 3-10th. The common read book discussion scheduled for Oct. 4th WILL be held.

The Binding of Isaac

On Sunday, we shared music and ideas about the Jewish New Year, which includes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The ten days between are the Days of Awe, when the faithful turn toward one another and ask for forgiveness.

We also forgive ourselves.

In my Buddhist meditation practice these past months, I have been deeply influenced by my teachers who have also evolved in our twenty years’ separation. Their once-Zen practice has been shaped and molded by many new learnings and it is completely dependent upon self-regard and self-compassion as the basis for all spiritual development.

Sometimes, Caitriona will sing: Treat yourself with tenderness, treat yourself with tenderness… I was so surprised to hear her sing the first time!

I shared the story of the Prodigal Son because it is so often told in connection with forgiveness, but it is another story, perhaps the most troubling one in the Hebrew Scriptures, that is told on Rosh Hashanah: The Binding of Isaac.

Abraham is tested by Yahweh who orders him to sacrifice his only son. He obeys, and at the last moment, God steps in and spares Isaac.

What kind of God is that?

At the very least, it seems like a cruel God, one with a bad sense of humor.

There are dozens of midrashim, or explanations on this text. Here’s mine, because I think this is not only a story about Man and God, but a story about human nature.

Life tries us. Sometimes just getting dressed can be a test of will and spirit.

We are being tested by the Universe right now, and much of the suffering was caused not by God’s cruelty or even Nature’s indifference, but by our own willful, greedy, and thoughtless ways.

I also agree with the midrash that reflects upon the notion that it sometimes takes near tragedy to understand the importance of what we have, including the value of our loved one:

It took an unfathomable divine decree, for Abraham to be truly present with his son. All of us face the test of Abraham. Will it take a moment of crisis before we walk together with those we love?

No one would rejoice at the deaths and suffering this time has wrought.

Nonetheless, we have a collective opportunity to go deeper into our own truth, to reunite with what truly matters, and to become more whole. Let us not squander it!

Love,

Cynthia

On Sunday, we will honor our Jewish siblings (as well as those among us with Jewish heritage or cultural ties) by acknowledging the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

These are the Days of Awe, when the Book of Life is open, and during which the Jewish community practice teshuvah, turning. Turning away from habits that are unhelpful, turning toward forgiveness, turning toward God.

Teshuva is return. To turn again, to turn away from sin. The concept of “sin” in Hebrew has twenty different words. The most common word is chata'ah, which literally means to “miss the mark,” much less punitive than the damnation and hellfire many of us associate with sin. God is literally waiting with joy for his people to return to Him, to rejoice and to forgive their sins.

You can read more about The Days of Awe by clicking here.

One act of repentance we all can do is to turn our minds and hearts toward justice. Even though most UUs do this all the time, the New Year can be a time to renew our intention (kavanah.)

I love the notion of healing the world, tikkun olam. No one person, nation, or faith can do this alone. That is absurd. It will take all of us, together, working beyond boundaries, asking for and giving forgiveness, to do the most important task before us:

Here is an important way you can help! Please sign the Interfaith Statement in this eBlast, composed by a member of the Temple, but signed by over 450 Nashvillians, including 100 clergy. Our goal is to have 1,000 signatures this week. It is just a beginning, but during these days of turning, may it signal a new start. The letter will be distributed to major news and media outlets. Let me know if you have any questions.

Love & Hope,

Cynthia

Poet Rio Cortez

How can we meet this moment with courage?

Simple, and yet seemingly so frightening.

We are called to stay engaged. Called by what, you say? By whom? By our shared faith, by our covenant with one another, by our individual and collective consciousness.

I don’t hear anybody calling! You say. Then maybe you not are listening.

Don’t only listen to the voices that are saying what you already know. Listen to the ones that challenge you, that defy your sense of reason, of order, of progress, of the way the world “ought” to be. Maybe those were just stories we told one another and ourselves for so long we believed them. And denial can be a very helpful tool! I learned a long time ago that if we all realized everything at once, we’d have a total psychic split. Reality is too much to comprehend. We take it in small doses. As we do, we become more connected with one another, with the Universe and its mysteries, until finally we disappear and leave this physical world for others to save or destroy.

This week, I will be talking about how we re-learn and re-know the world anew as we pass through it.

One of the things we are all coming to terms with in new ways is racism and the ways it permeates all of our lives.

Here’s a poem I read recently:

DRIVING AT NIGHT

Rio Cortez

For Laquan McDonald

I think it’s quails lining the road but it's fallen Birchwood.

What look like white clouds in a grassy basin, sprinklers.

I mistake the woman walking her retrieve as a pair of fawns.

Could-be animals. Unexplained weather. Maybe they see us

that way. Knowing better, the closer they get. Not quite ready

to let it go.

Laquan McDonald was one of many young Black men shot and killed by police. 2014. The poem explores the territory of how we think we know something by what we perceive, and yet, how often we perceive wrong. Here’s a link to an NPR series that goes in detail about his life, his killing, and the trial. Click here.

Laquan was what was called a “throwaway” kid. He was bounced around in the system. His life did not matter. My Seth would have been such a kid, too, if Eric and I hadn’t fought to have permanent custody of him. Would he have been shot down like Laquan? Maybe not, because he’s white… but then again, maybe so, because he’s autistic, and autistic kids are five times as likely to be assaulted by police as neurotypical ones.

In our book discussion of How to Be an Antiracist, which began Sunday, we started with the question, “what made you think or understand something in a new or different way than you had before?” I believe that GNUUC has the courage and the fortitude to have these talks productively. You have proved me right!

Truly, every day is an opportunity to learn something new.

It takes courage to admit we don’t know everything, that what we think we’ve known may be wrong, that indeed we may have been terribly wrong and may even have wronged others.

The root word for courage is the same as the word for heart. In French le cœur. In Spanish, corazon.

Take heart. You have more heart and more courage than you think.

The Byrds of Paradise (1994)

Even though we work as “a team” and consult with one another frequently (or maybe because,) Nathanael and I have never taken the time to sit down and get acquainted. I’m sure he’s heard or read bits of my “story,” (maybe more than once) as I use illustrations from my own experience, but I didn’t know a lot of his. For example: He was born in Norway! His parents were Baha’i missionaries. He left there for St. Louis at age three. (He was born the year I graduated from High School, 1973.) His parents and he and his siblings moved on to Hawaii, where he experienced racial animus against white people, who were minorities there. '

I told him about a TV series my nephew was in as a child star based upon that premise called The Byrds of Paradise. 

He also lived on Oahu and in Micronesia as his parents’ marriage ended, he stayed with his father, who went on to law school, he attended high school in several venues including by correspondence for one year, and finished in the white bastion of Amherst, Mass!

To me, this and his Baha’i faith go a long way to explain Nathanael’s exuberant, extroverted, and versatile ways. I think people who move a great deal and must adjust either learn the skills to do so or become extraordinarily withdrawn. By contrast, I went nowhere and was very provincial for about 30 years, as well as being super introverted, so I had to teach myself to have confidence in new circumstances.

I love this part of his story:

I got my first Lego kit, a Saturn rocket. I insisted on building something with the kit without following the assembly instructions. I required myself to use every piece. The irony was that there were these few pairs of pieces that, had I read the book, I would have understood were meant to be mated together to make HINGES. In the moment, I used them unmated for other improvisational purposes. But I often wonder what even more amazing thing I could have built if I had only taken a moment to read and understand hinges. Perhaps that informs my enduring enthusiasm to read the documentation.

Okay, there’s a lot more! But leaving out the mushy parts and the other stuff for another day, I pass the baton. Who would you like to know better? Give them a shout or email and ask them if you can interview them, by phone or just by email, as Nat and I did. If you’d rather, we can pair you with someone. 

As long as the GNUUC Building is closed, and Rev. Cain continues to work from home, these are the hours she will be in her virtual office and available to meet.

WEEKS 1-3 of each month:

Monday 8-4

Tuesday 8-4

Wednesday 8-4

Thursday will be her sermon prep day, Friday day off, Wed. eve & Sat. meetings. The fourth week will be off except for urgent matters, emergencies, and scheduled meetings. Please call, text or email to set a time.